WorldWatch Week in Review
July 11th, 2003 by Willy Smith in
Because this was a slow week for scandal and FUD, we allowed our penguin and mouse to wander into a few more esoteric sites. We hope you find something that piques your curiosity and imagination.
The University of Texas has put many of Edsger Wybe Dijkstra's extensive writings on-line for free download. It's worth the time to peruse these writings, and there is probably something for everyone whether you're technically inclined or not. We also linked to a German study that finds there may be some eventual legal issues with free software if and when any lawsuits result from its development and use in Germany. We also linked to a poll from Germany showing that German internet users really don't want to pay for downloads if they can get the same thing for free, despite generally easy access in that country to on-line payment systems.
According to another study, attitudes in the UK towards free software are changing for the better--even though a member of the organization that published the study says the UK is a third-world country in its usage of free software to date.
We also had an interesting time looking at a supercomputing news site, linking to some articles from SupercomputingOnline.com. Although not specifically a Linux site, it has been devoting a lot of space to Linux!If you live in a developing country, you may be especially interested in this idea from Malaysia for inexpensive distribution of free software. Edsger Dykstra's call for simplification is echoed in this low-tech snail-mail based scheme.
Willy Smith is Editor in Chief of WorldWatch.LinuxGazette.com.
Delicious
Digg
Reddit
Newsvine
TechnoratiSubscribe now!
Recently Popular
| What happens after TV's mainframe era ends next February? | Jul-05-08 |
| Why Python? | May-01-00 |
| Building a Call Center with LTSP and Soft Phones | Aug-25-05 |
| An Open Video to HP | Jul-02-08 |
| Chapter 16: Ubuntu and Your iPod | Aug-30-06 |
| Time to school the FCC on what "free" really means | Jul-02-08 |
Featured Video
Shawn Powers has a message for hardware vendors. Listen up!
From the Magazine
July 2008, #171
Heard of the Web? If not, read on. This month we talk with Matt Mullenweg about WordPress. If you want to get your hands dirty in Web code, take a look at the rest of our feature articles on WebKit, Dojo and OpenLaszlo.
In the rest of the issue, you'll find articles on OpenID, RDFa and Quanta Plus.
Kyle Rankin puts a new spin (as in "no" spin SSD) on hard drives and
also tells you how to migrate to that new disk (spinning or not).
Mick Bauer continues his series on customizing live CD's.
And, James Gray gives us a feel for the state of Linux in the enterprise.
After all that, you may need some TV time. If so, check out our review
on how to make that digital TV tuner card work in your Linux box.
Developing Country Distribution.
On July 13th, 2003 TaranRampersad (not verified) says:
In Trinidad and Tobago, SneakerNet seems to be the best solution, though it's probably because of the size of the islands themselves. You can practically throw a CD anywhere. :)
One thing that I am considering... IRC. The transfer rates P2P may be worthwhile for sending distros throughout the Caribbean. Maybe it's a throwback (like using snailmail), but maybe it's worthwhile.
Re: WorldWatch Week in Review
On July 11th, 2003 Anonymous says:
Edsger Wybe Dijkstra's writings have been online for some time (I remember browsing though them shortly after his death) - but very much worth reading anyhow.
A remarkable man. I seem to remember that he never owned a computer. Go figure.